B.C. community receives its first electric vehicle

by Jil - February 16, 2011

Qualicum Beach, British Columbia – A Mitsubishi i-MiEV has become the first all-electric vehicle in the municipal fleet at Qualicum Beach, British Columbia. The town is now one of the first communities in the province to operate a production-model electric vehicle.

“I commend our councillors and town staff for being community leaders for clean air,” said Mayor Teunis Westbroek. “This car will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and help attain our sustainability goals. By replacing a fossil fuel vehicle with the electric Mitsubishi car, the Town of Qualicum Beach demonstrates that we are at the forefront of implementing electric vehicle technology in Canada.”

In 2009, the provincial government and other stakeholders led an initiative to bring the first electric vehicles to British Columbia, with the City of Vancouver and BC Hydro the first in Canada to take delivery of three i-MiEVs for testing and evaluation. Qualicum Beach has entered into a three-year agreement to test the vehicle and provide real-life driving data to Mitsubishi.

The town adopted a low-speed electric vehicle bylaw in 2008, one of the first to do so in British Columbia, and has recently installed two electric vehicle charging stations for public use in an underground parkade.